Executive summary

Purpose of intervention

In accordance with Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) planned inspections to examine Control of Radiation Exposure (CORE) across a number of licensed sites (under Regulation 8 of the Ionising Radiations Regulations, IRRs 1999), two ONR specialist radiological protection specialists conducted an inspection of control of radiation doses on the Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd (DRDL) site. To ensure consistency with previous ONR CORE inspections, the inspection was conducted using a standard questionnaire and follow-up question and answer sessions with the licensee.

Interventions Carried Out by ONR

The intervention was conducted at the licensed nuclear site and consisted of:

Plant visit to submarine reactor compartment;

Plant visit to Nuclear Utilities building; and

Detailed assessment of licensees answers to CORE questionnaire.

Explanation of Judgement if Safety System Not Judged to be Adequate

No safety systems inspection was undertaken.

Key Findings, Inspector's Opinions and Reasons for Judgements Made

At the time of the inspection DRDL was working to make improvements to its arrangements in response to the extant improvement notice for radiological risk assessment on the licensed site. This includes improvements to procedural controls for radiological risk, in particular; work scheduling, learning from experience and provision of information/instruction/training to workers on radiological protection. There is a large site-wide programme being undertaken to make improvements in all these areas and appears to be progressing satisfactorily.

Although in a number of areas there are aspects deemed to be below standard, overall the inspection was deemed to be adequate, as DRDL was able to show ongoing improvements and a positive trend in the areas considered to be below standard.

DRDL’s operations are consistent with several examples of relevant good practice in radiation protection, most notably in personal exposure trending and analysis and in the arrangements it has in place for training of its own staff working within the radiological protection organisation. However the standards of training, information and instruction of workers amongst the remainder of the site were below standard with planned improvements underway.

Conclusion of Intervention

The arrangements inspected were deemed overall to be adequate, DRDL was able to demonstrate ongoing improvements and a positive trend in all the areas considered to be below standard.